Humming is a ubiquitous and mundane act many of us perform. The fact that we often hum to ourselves, to family members, or to close friends suggests that humming is a personal, intimate act. It can also be a powerful way in which people open up to others and share collective memories. In religious settings such as Tibetan chanting, humming offers a mesmerising sonic experience. Then there are hums that resound regardless of human activity, such as the hums of impersonal objects and man-made or natural phenomena. The first sound studies book to explores the topic of humming, Humming offers a unique examination of the polarising categories of hums, from hums that are performed only to oneself, that are exercised in religious practice, that claim healing, and that resonate with our bodies, to hums that can drive people to madness, that emanate from cities and towns, and that resound in the universe. By acknowledging the quirkiness of hums within the established discourse in sound studies, Humming takes a truly interdisciplinary view on this familiar yet less-trodden sonic concept in sound studies.
Autorentext
Suk-Jun Kim is Lecturer in Electroacoustic Music and Sound Art and Programme Director of MMus in Sonic Arts at the University of Aberdeen, UK. As a composer and sound artist, Suk-Jun Kim has been exploring the sense of place through his composition and sound installation. His recent publication, Hasla (2011), documents his work based on a short story, Tails, which he has written, as well as writings by three renowned theorists and composers (Denis Smalley, Folkmar Hein, and Julia H. Schröder). Kim's research interest includes imaginal listening, phenomenological approaches to listening and composing, new approaches to sound and place, and slowness and boredom as artistic processes, the last of which has led him to conduct extremely slow soundwalks on high streets in Scotland. Kim's work has been awarded first prizes at Bourges Electroacoustic Music Competition, Metamorphoses in Belgium, and CIMESP. He was a resident composer fellow at the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Programme in 2009.
Inhalt
Preface
1. 'My hums? . . . Just about hums?'
2. The Secrecy of Humming
3. Hums of the Other
Bibliography
Index